"Ty’s a good guy," said forward Derrick Favors. "Ever since I’ve been here he’s helped me out with a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff y’all don’t see out there on the court. He helped me out with growing as a player and growing as a man."

Asked if he wanted Corbin back as head coach next year, Favors said, "Yeah. I hope so. But that’s not my decision."

Rookie point guard Trey Burke also advocated for his coach.

"People knock on him, [but] I definitely think he’s done a good job motivating us," Burke said. "Bottom line is we’re a young team. We didn’t have the year a lot of people expected us to have. But I definitely think the future’s bright."

It hasn’t been the year Corbin expected, though it’s been something he anticipated could happen after the Jazz let key free agents — including Paul Millsap, who would go on to be an All-Star in the East, and Al Jefferson, who has helped spark a turnaround in Charlotte — walk in July.

"No way this is good for the coaches," Corbin told 1280 The Zone on Tuesday, recalling his feelings on the offseason moves.

In a league where coaches take the fall for failures, he might be right. The Jazz have 24 wins on the year, matching the lowest total since the franchise moved to Utah in 1979. The rebuilding Jazz rank dead last in defense and have lost 21 of their last 24 games.

The Jazz will finish out the year Wednesday night in Minnesota and will then return to Salt Lake City to clean out their lockers and have exit interviews on Thursday morning.

After that, Corbin’s summer plans become less clear.

"Take some time to decompress a little bit and get out of it a little bit," he told the radio station. "I think it will be good for me especially to relax a little bit before we sit down and talk and decide what’s best for everybody going forward."

The Jazz will get help in the off-season, but how much is uncertain. Whether it’s Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker, Dante Exum, Julius Randle or Aaron Gordon, each would considerably improve the team’s prospects. Yet some experts believe no one this year is alone a championship-maker. But the people the Jazz add in free agency is also crucial matter. Forget pie-in-the-sky players such as Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, or aging superstars like Tim Duncan or Dirk Nowitzki. Adding Eric Bledsoe, Rudy Gay or Greg Monroe, for example, to a top-five pick would make the Jazz a nice team.

Detroit had similar problems as the Jazz with their big line-up so not sure Monroe makes much sense. Suns will match any off for Bledoe I'd think. Maybe they'd trade Dragic? Would you rather have Gay than Hayward or Burks especially if they get Wiggins or Parker? They need a veteran pg that's for sure.

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It’s murky territory for any small-market team. Drafting will happen and help, but free-agent signings will decide how quickly they come back to relevance.

It's mostly on the young guys thanks to letting Millsap, Demarre and Mo go. Expecting much out of FA isn't smart in Utah.

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All those variables lurked at the perimeter of Monday’s Jazz-Lakers game. Was it interesting? In a long-distance sense. Nowadays, if you look around, you can get lower-bowl tickets for a song. Which song?

How about “Someday my Prince Will Come”?

Anyway, the Jazz finished their home season with their fans conflicted and confused. Losing is a good thing, right? But by a 15-point margin? To a team minus Nash, Bryant and Gasol? Nick Young came off the bench to put 41 points on the Jazz.

“I can play a little bit. I just wanted you all to see that … I got a future here,” Young said. “I can do my thing. I’ve been telling you all. You better watch out for me.”

Even now, with Jazz’s draft hopes rising, the Lakers still can manage to ruin the fun.

dont know if this post is suppose to be in here .. but if both smart and exum will be available. i would like the jazz to pick exum over smart i also dont like randle for they have kanter and favors not unless the jazz would like to part with kanter... anyone have anythoughts about kanter?

Kanter looks likely to be traded by next trade deadline to me. He and Favors didn't work together. Unless a new coach can make them work together they need to trade him before he becomes a free agent I'd think.

Jazz should take the best player available regardless of position. I believe all the guys available to them are rated higher than the guys they have were when they were drafted. They also have Gobert and Evans in the mix up front and possibly Tomic.

UCLA men’s basketball sophomore Kyle Anderson has elected to forego his remaining collegiate eligibility and enter the 2014 NBA Draft. Anderson secured first-team All-Pac-12 honors and was named a third-team Associated Press All-America selection as a sophomore in 2013-14. He averaged closer to a triple-double than any player in the nation, registering 14.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game. Anderson helped lead UCLA to a 28-9 overall record and the program’s first Pac-12 Tournament title and NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance since 2008. uclabruins.com

mid first

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UCLA men’s basketball freshman Zach LaVine has elected to forego his remaining collegiate eligibility and enter the 2014 NBA Draft. LaVine captured Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honors in 2013-14, helping lead UCLA to a 28-9 overall record and the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance and Pac-12 Tournament title since 2008. The 6-foot-5 guard from Seattle averaged 9.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game for the Bruins. uclabruins.com

Derrick Favors proved that he deserves major minutes for Utah in the future while setting career-highs in scoring, rebounding and assists in 30 minutes a game.

He's got a contract that proves he needs to do a lot more.

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Alec Burks showed that he has the ability to score no matter who the Jazz are facing and nearly doubled his career-high in scoring average by putting up 14 points a night.

He'd already shown it if anyone was paying attention.

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Gordon Hayward showed that he is a solid all-around player who can score, find the open man and hit the glass.

He'd already shown it too!

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Enes Kanter has displayed plenty of skill on the offensive end of the floor and has shown that he has learned much from his time behind Al Jefferson.

As had he!

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The big bright spot on the season has been the play of point guard Trey Burke. After a brutal summer and an early season injury, Burke showed why the Jazz brass traded up to get his services. In fact, his year was so impressive that his first season with the Jazz ranks among the best rookie campaigns in Utah Jazz history.

Pretty sad you can gun like that and be considered one of the top rookies. Great proof that they need a minor league system and need to do something about tanking. Burke shouldn't have been starting and playing those kind of minutes.

This list is a good example. A lot of these guys played better than Burke but they played a role off the bench on good teams instead of starting.

Kirilenko's season certainly better coming off the bench behind Karl and Donyell. Deron was better he was just benched behind Lucas like stiffs parts of the season. Thurl was in a weak rookie class like Burke but made first team all rookie too.

Based on four years in the NBA, that’s the kind of money Gordon Hayward deserves to be offered as he heads into the offseason as a restricted free agent. And even that price tag could be considered too high for the Jazz swingman, especially based off the last 82 games.

I would tell his agent to let the Jazz match any offer just don't sign an offer sheet. Front load it and overpay him next year when they will have money to spare unless they want to overpay on free agents instead and with Burks and Kanter coming up they can't really spend that money past next season. They need to sign a vet pg/combo guard and Hayward(possibly Tomic and Neto) and fill out the rest of the roster which could be a few rookies with their 3 picks. Than Hayward becomes a bargain after the first year and you can sign Burks and possibly Kanter.

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When Derrick Favors signed a four-year extension reportedly worth more than $47 million before last season, Hayward became the focus of the Jazz. National media reports indicate Hayward rejected a deal worth more than what Favors got, making him a restricted free agent with the Jazz able to match any offer he receives this summer.

He might be sorry he didn't take it now?

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So what is Hayward’s value?

He sees himself as a go-to player, going so far as to state it after the Jazz lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in their final home game of this season.

“I learned that I can be the guy,” he said. “(I) just have to be more consistent. I think that’s kind of a theme of our whole team. We’ve seen potential out of everybody. It’s just inconsistency that gets you.”

Hopefully that's just talk with his FA coming up and not delusional.

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Perhaps no Jazz player has been more inconsistent this season than Hayward.

Favors and Burke. G usually filled the box score even when he wasn't shooting well.

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At times, he has looked like a franchise player, while at others he’s appeared devoid of confidence.

He's rarely if ever looked like a franchise player. Burks and Kanter are the only ones to me that ever have.

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I learned that I can be the guy. (I) just have to be more consistent. I think that's kind of a theme of our whole team. We've seen potential out of everybody. It's just inconsistency that gets you.

–Gordon Hayward

Hayward was sensational in the Jazz win over Oklahoma City back in February, putting up a line of 37 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. In March he averaged 12.2 points, shooting 34 percent from the field and 23 percent from three-point distance.

Former NBA coach Stan Van Gundy views him as nothing more than a role player. He likes the former Butler star’s athletic ability but doesn’t see a special player.

He's special. Not a lot of guys put up his kind of numbers. He's just not a go to guy.

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“To me he’s a guy who does a little bit of everything,” Van Gundy said. “I think he’s a good athlete. I like the way he plays the game, he plays it hard, but I still don’t see him as anything more than a complementary player. He’s a guy who averages 16 points a game. He’s not going to be guy who averages 24, 25 points.”

The numbers certainly support Van Gundy’s claim. Through four seasons Hayward is averaging 11.9 points a game, 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

Even though his scoring average has increased every season, Hayward’s shooting percentage has dropped each year. It dipped to 41 percent this season, including 30 percent from three-point range.

“He shoots low percentages — that’s what really concerns me with his offensive game,” Van Gundy said. “This isn’t a guy who can shoot the ball. At least he has proven he can shoot the ball.”

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The facts don’t add up to Hayward being a marquee player for the Jazz, or any other NBA team. And yet, some team is probably going to fork out more than $10 million a year for him.

Two teams that will have available money — the Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics — have a history with Hayward and could be an attractive option for him. Phoenix coach Jeff Hornacek was an assistant with the Jazz the last three seasons. Boston’s Brad Stevens coached Hayward in college.

Van Gundy sees no reason to cough up more than $8 million for Hayward’s services.

“Honestly, at this point, I think where his worth is (the) mid-level (exception), maybe even a little bit below,” Van Gundy said. “On a good team that is going to contend for a championship, he’s probably a fourth or fifth starter at best.”

The Jazz have several options with Hayward, starting with their right to sign him before any team offers a contract. They also could match any team’s offer, make a deal, or simply allow him to leave without any compensation.

It’s hard to imagine the Jazz would go the route of Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson, two stalwarts the Jazz allowed to leave without getting anything in return. Hayward seems to value a commodity in the organization’s rebuilding process.

Whatever the future holds, it adds up to an interesting dilemma for the Jazz when Hayward’s contract expires at the end of June. He’s a talented player, but the question becomes at what price.

This season was a very different season for Gordon Hayward. Last year, he played off the action of Jefferson and Millsap. This year he created the action. Comparing the shots charts of the last two seasons shows this difference.

The right wing action is the most interesting. Last year a great deal of that comes off the left block play of Al Jefferson. This year he is creating for himself in those areas.

He has become better in the areas close to the basket. If you narrow it more from what you can see here he improved from 53% to 57% in the restricted area this year.

Looking at these charts Gordon has improved in the areas around the basket which are most difficult, but he lost the good looks from other players action. If he gets that back with a better surrounding roster he will be a vastly improved player.

A better cast and better role. He should have never been the go to guy even with the current roster.

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Bring back the 40% right side three point shooting with the improvement around the paint and you have a very solid and efficient offensive player.

Let’s just hope those 16 ping pong balls don’t turn out to be the important ones. This is a terrific group of people from the players to the coaches to the support staff to my fellow co-workers in the broadcast department and it is really nice for everyone to leave the season on a positive note.

This may have been Trey Burke’s best game of the season. He has improved dramatically in the final month of the season. After a month of staying away from the paint like he was allergic to it he is now driving into the lane and making plays. The coaching staff worked really hard on getting him to create for his teammates and he started to do that more and more. As he gets stronger in the off-season and works on the type of shots he will need to take to be successful he will improve dramatically.

Trey’s clutch play is incredible he shot 51% from the field and insane 16 of 29 from 3 for 55%, the 2nd best rate of anyone in the NBA and nearly impeccable 16 of 17 from the line, the 5th best free throw shooter in the clutch in the NBA. This is what separates the kid. He has an inappropriate confidence and that is a wonderful thing. This will drive him to success in the NBA.

The Jazz played with great pace in the 1st quarter. With Alec and Jeremy in the starting line-up the Jazz were a much faster team and got out and ran. Fast break points only tell part of the story. When they get up the floor in a hurry and they keep the pressure up then any mismatches stay for the whole possession. The Jazz need to play with much more tempo next year.

That's one thing I expected this year with Al gone.

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They can’t survive being this young and ranking 26th in pace of play and using the most possessions of anyone in the NBA in the final 12 seconds of the shot clock. This will be part of Trey’s development as well.

Sounds like he is a big reason for the slow pace.

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Derrick Favors has been steadily building an offensive game piece by piece. It is not a huge ahh moment it is much more subtle. However, more and more he is comfortable in the post, reading the floor correctly, working off the defender and making plays. He closed the final 20 games of the season averaging 16 points on 56% shooting. Tonight he had 21 on 8 of 12 shooting.

What a cool way for Jeremy Evans to close the year. He has proven that is he is a viable NBA player. Not sure if it is a full time rotation player but he is a solid player that can help you win games and alter pace. He was very very good on Love tonight. He got into his body and he denied him any room and Love didn’t want to fight through it. JE finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 3 steals and 3 blocks.

His best game ever. Maybe he could start?

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How nice for Malcom Thomas to have something to build off. He looked like an NBA player. He knew where he could have success and how he was going to play. Nailed a three and showed the ability to play in the post.

Tip of the hat to Richard Jefferson for playing 82 games and finished the year over 40% from three

Certainly wasn't expecting that from him.

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Gordon Hayward finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists and Kevin Martin was just 2 of 5 when Hayward switched over to him after Burks had fouled out. Tyrone Corbin’s quick substitution of Hayward in the 3rd quarter was strange but it was fortunate because Hayward ended up logging 46 minutes.

Rudy Gobert put out a solid and important 14 minutes. For the first time his length impacted the game offensively as well as defensively. He grabbed 3 offensive rebounds for put backs and in 13 minutes had 8 points and 9 rebounds. He is a lot further along than anyone thought he would be at this point.

Maybe his best game too. I thought he'd do better offensively after what I saw in the summer.

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Trey Burke was +19 in a 6 point win. Kevin Love was -12 in a 6 point loss because he played like he had taken Benadryl

Jazz shot 12 of 30 with Gobert on the floor. He is still an impediment to good offense. He has a chance to be an elite game changing defender. He could be Roy Hibbert, who also is a problem for Indiana on offense.

Line-up of Trey, Gordon, Richard, Malcolm Thomas and Derrick Favors was +17 in 8 minutes. I knew that was the line-up we should have been using all year.

Have a great off-season. Thanks for reading this after every game (almost every game). Your passion drives me.

Burke said he will work on getting stronger and improving his jump shot this offseason, after shooting 38 percent from the field.

He is part of one of the youngest teams in the league. The Jazz's starting lineup Wednesday featured just one player — Jeremy Evans — older than 24 years old. The 26-year-old Evans started in place of Enes Kanter, who was inactive with tendinitis in his right quadriceps.

That youthful lineup included third-year player Alec Burks and fourth-year player Derrick Favors, both of whom averaged career highs in points this season. It also included Utah’s leading scorer, Hayward.

On Wednesday, Hayward finished one assist away from his first career triple-double, capping arguably the strongest season of his four-year NBA career. He notched career highs in points, rebounds and assists this season, and on Wednesday, he became the first Jazz player since Pete Maravich to average more than 16 points, five rebounds and five assists per game.

Hayward said he expected to play a bigger role this season after the Jazz lost their two leading scorers from 2012-13 in Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson.

“I was ready to embrace it,” he said. “I knew it was going to be a challenge, but it was something I was looking toward to.”

Hayward also said he’s not worried about being a restricted free agent this summer. “I can cross the bridge later,” he said Wednesday morning, “but right now, I’m still obviously a Jazz player, and so I’m doing whatever I can to help us win.”

Corbin, whose contract with the Jazz is also set to expire, avoided a question about his future with the team.

“It’ll happen when it happens,” he said. “I’ve played for 16 years of speculations and all that. I know where this team is — we talked about coming into the year. We’ll see. We’ll see if things can be worked out.”

they know they are not the worst Jazz squad since the franchise moved to Utah. That distinction still belongs to Adrian Dantley, Ron Boone and the 1979-80 Jazz, the first in the Utah era, a team that won just 24 games. With Wednesday’s win over Minnesota, this iteration of the Jazz finished with a 25-57 mark, narrowly avoiding a place in that historical footnote.

The Jazz’s last win was not easily acquired.

Utah led by as much as 19 in the first half before squandering the advantage. Early in the third quarter, Minnesota’s Kevin Martin hit a corner-3 to overtake the Jazz at 56-55.

In the fourth quarter, the Jazz again owned a double-digit lead.

But Martin, who finished with a game-high 36 points, helped lead another comeback.

In the second extra period, the Jazz finally took control, ensuring the Wolves finished with a losing record (40-42).

Minnesota’s Kevin Love had 19 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

Utah forward Derrick Favors was one of three Jazz men with a double-double, finishing with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Jazz center Enes Kanter was kept out of the game because of soreness in his knee. Forward Marvin Williams also missed the season finale due to a knee injury. In their stead, a trio of backup big men took advantage of some extra minutes. Forward Jeremy Evans got the nod in the starting lineup and delivered with 18 points and 11 rebounds on the night. Rookie center Rudy Gobert eight points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots in 14 minutes. And little-used forward Malcolm Thomas had nine points and four rebounds in an expanded role.

Burke had one of the best games of his rookie campaign. His numbers were gaudy, but they belied the flair behind them. Burke had 32 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. While he had an uncharacteristic five turnovers, Utah was plus-19 when he was on the court, which is very impressive given the close score. Burke clearly showed why he is Jazz’s point guard of the now and the future.

He's shown he's got a future in the NBA. Rather he is a future starter for a good team remains to be seen. He's got a lot to work on. If they have the chance to draft Exum or Smart they certainly might have to consider them not to mention letting Neto go at him in the summer.

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Backcourt partner Gordon Hayward’s performance typified his entire season. While he shot was errant (just 8 of 23 from the floor), his all-around game was brilliant. The swingman just missed a triple double with 23 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

Derrick Favors was consistently strong all evening. He was stout on both ends of the court, finishing with 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two blocked shots and two steals. Fill-in starter Jeremy Evans may have had the best outing of his Jazz career in putting up 18 points and 11 rebounds to go with three steals and three blocked shots.

Last but not least, Rudy Gobert came off the bench to make impacts defensively and offensively. He had eight points and nine rebounds in a mere 14 minutes. The future is indeed bright. The young guys look to build upon their progress next season.

This and that

- With center Enes Kanter sitting out, not only did Evans step up, but little-used big man Malcolm Thomas had his best game of the season also. He was energetic and vocal as he contributed nine points and four rebounds in 21 minutes.

- All-Star forward Kevin Love came across as disinterested in the season finale, but still ended with a near triple double of his own (19 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists).

- Center Gorgui Dieng, who was actually drafted by the Jazz, had just four points and seven boards. He had been averaging 15.7 points and 15 rebounds the previous three outings.

David Smith provides instant analysis for Deseret News' Utah Jazz coverage. He works for LDS Philanthropies and also writes for Salt City Hoops (ESPN's Jazz affiliate). He can be reached at mechakucha1@gmail.com or on Twitter at davidjsmith1232.